Monday, August 16, 2010

I hope my neighbors don't come after me with torches and pitchforks today, because the baby goat who is still here yelled his fool head off all night. He seems to have forgotten how to get to his food and water. Maybe he just wasn't that hungry when I fed him this morning, but I have suspicions about his brainpower. I think he might be the one who accidentally got caught in the electric chicken fence at his old house.

Our dishwasher is now actively seeking my demise, and I fear it will have to be replaced. Never, never, never again will I buy an appliance from Amana. Remember when they were a good and reliable brand? Ah, the Clinton administration . . . we were so young then. Anybody out there love their dishwasher and want to give me recommendations?

If you drove past my house this morning and saw a lady putting a dam in the ditch while wearing dry-clean only corduroy capris, a handmade apron given her by her talented sister-in-law, and her husband's gloves, singing "Scarborough Fair" softly to herself in between grunts as she moved rocks (lifting with her back, gasp) onto the tarp, that was me. And if you drove past my house a half hour ago and saw a lady making cuts in the side of the ditch and falling off the shovel blade into the ditch in her dry-clean only capris, that was also me.

This "farming" thing is starting to take up sort of a lot of our time.

I got some awesome new stainless pans off of Woot, and though All-Clad they are not, cost what All-Clad does they do not. I know All-Clad is the shiznit, but I suspect that for my unschooled hamhands, the difference in quality is so minor as to be almost undetectable. I have quite enjoyed them thus far, and plan to use the six-quart stock pot tonight to make a zucchini bisque that I love and my children will really, really hate. You might not, though. Jenny's family grooves on it. Here is the recipe:

Zucchini Bisqueminimally adapted from Bountiful Harvest, an earnestly-titled but useful cookbook(makes about 5 cups, so you know I'm going to double it)

In a large saucepan, saute the onion in the butter. Add the zucchini and chicken broth. Simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, then add seasonings. Puree with a blender, fopro or immersion blender (the best choice, because: easy cleanup for lazy cooks like me!). Return to pan, stir in cream and heat through.

*Speaking of which, Cook's Illustrated did a taste-test of boxed stock, and Rachel Ray's is low in weird ingredients and high in decent flavor. Good for her.